The NFL schedule release is finally here. We’ve been hyping it up all week, and tonight, we finally learned the entire 272-game schedule.
The schedule release may not seem super important, especially because we already know every team’s opponents beforehand, but it can make or break your season. If you have to go to Green Bay, Buffalo and Kansas City in November and December, you’re going to be very unhappy. But if you can make those trips in September or October, that could completely change the outcome of the game.
You also have to take travel into account. If you’re a west coast team and have to constantly make trips across the country going back-and-forth, that can really screw you up as well.
There are a lot of little intricacies in the schedule that could completely alter the outcome of your season.
With the full schedule out, I went through every team’s schedule and identified the biggest winners and losers from Thursday night.
Winner: Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys have a fairly easy schedule on paper, but the league also made their schedule pretty easy on them. They only have one rough stretch, and the rest of their hard games are pretty spread out.
The Cowboys should start 2-0 with games against the Giants and Commanders to open the season. They do have to go to Rio to face the Ravens before going to Houston to play the Texans, but after that, their schedule lightens up with their only big threats being Philadelphia and Green Bay on the road (and I think Dallas is better than Green Bay, and they get to go there in October and not December).
From Week 12 to Week 16, they do have to face the Eagles and Jaguars at home and the Seahawks and Rams on the road, which is very tough, but they have a bye week sandwiched right in the middle in Week 14. If they can win just one of those games, they’ll be in good shape.
The Cowboys only have back-to-back road games two times this year, and one of those doesn’t really even count because they have a bye week in the middle. The NFL made sure to give their biggest draw a pretty favorable schedule so they have the best chance of making the playoffs as possible.
Loser: Los Angeles Rams
The Los Angeles Rams are still my favorites to win it all this year, but my god, their schedule is absolutely brutal.
The Rams will start the year with a trip to Australia to face a fully healthy San Francisco 49ers squad. That’s already a tough task, but then they have to fly back to LA and face the New York Giants, an up-and-coming team, on Monday Night Football in Week 2.
But that’s just where the fun begins. After that they take back-to-back trips to Denver and Philadelphia before returning home to host Buffalo. Four playoff teams and one of the most promising, young teams in the league to start the season. Plus a whole lot of traveling. Easily the hardest start to a season for any team this year.
The schedule lightens up in the middle, but the Rams will then end the year with seven-game run of vs Green Bay, vs Kansas City, at San Francisco, vs Dallas, at Seattle, at Tampa Bay, vs Seattle. The travel on this end isn’t nearly as bad, but those are seven high quality opponents to end the year.
The Rams are still in the mix for the 1-seed, but the NFL did them no favors with this schedule.
Winner: Cincinnati Bengals
The Cincinnati Bengals have one of the easiest schedules in the league on paper, but they also didn’t really get screwed over by the league with the order of their schedule.
Cincy starts the year with a pretty moderate stretch. They have to go to Houston and host Jacksonville, but they also get to play the Bucs, Steelers and Dolphins before a Week 6 bye. There’s a good chance they’re 3-2 after that stretch.
After their bye, they go to Baltimore, but they get a very friendly stretch where they host Tennessee, go to Atlanta, host Pittsburgh, go to Washington, host New Orleans and go to Cleveland. They don’t have a single back-to-back road trip, and all of those games are very winnable.
The final five games of their schedule aren’t too bad, either. The Chiefs come to town in Week 14 and they host Baltimore in Week 17, but they also play Carolina, Indianapolis and Cleveland in that stretch.
There’s no long road trips and travel isn’t too bad, so I would absolutely say Cincinnati are big winners from Thursday.
Loser: Las Vegas Raiders
I don’t know if this was the NFL’s way of helping Fernando Mendoza, knowing he’s probably going to sit to start the year, or their way of forcing Las Vegas to start him earlier than they want to by making Kirk Cousins look bad, but either way, the first half of the Raiders’ schedule is absolutely insane.
The Raiders open the season with a winnable game against Miami, but after that, it’s no bueno. They will travel to face the Chargers and then come home to face the Saints before hosting the Chiefs, traveling to New England to play the Patriots and hosting the Bills and Rams. But that’s not all…
After that stretch, the Raiders will go to New York to face the Jets, which could be a win, but then go to San Francisco, host Seattle and go to Denver. I mean, what the hell, NFL?
Chargers, Chiefs, Patriots, Bills, Rams, 49ers, Seahawks and Broncos in the first 11 weeks? That’s absolutely insane. I’m not a Raiders fan, but man, I feel bad for my guy Daniel Rios. It’s going to be a rough start to the year for Vegas.
Winner: Baltimore Ravens
The Baltimore Ravens are big winners from the NFL schedule release. They didn’t have the toughest schedule in the world coming in, but the NFL did a great job ensuring Jesse Minter has success in year one.
The Ravens start the year with games against the Colts, Saints, Cowboys, Titans, Falcons and Browns. If they’re not 4-2 or 5-1 in that stretch, something went wrong. The Saints and Cowboys should give them a challenge, and Indy could too, but they should win at least four of those games.
Bengals, Bills, Jaguars and Chargers isn’t a great four-game stretch, but the only game they have to travel for is Buffalo, and I believe they’re a better team than the Jags and Chargers, and possibly even Cincy. 3-1 is very doable, but 2-2 is probably more realistic.
After that stretch, Baltimore plays Carolina, Houston and Tampa Bay. The Texans probably get the best of them, but I think the Ravens are better than Carolina and Tampa. And after that, they end the year with four straight AFC North games against Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Pittsburgh again. If something happens and Lamar gets hurt, but returns late in the year, they could run the table and probably win the AFC North.
I think the schedule fell in a very favorable way for Baltimore, so they are absolutely winners from Thursday night.
Loser: San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers are my final losers from the schedule release. They open the season in Australia against the Rams before two winnable games against the Cardinals and Dolphins, but then they have to play Denver, Seattle and Washington, who all could give them some trouble.
After games against the Falcons and Raiders and their bye week, things get tough once again for San Fran. They have to go to Dallas in Week 10, then play Minnesota in Mexico City the next week (their second international game), then finish the season with the Seahawks, Rams, Chargers, Chiefs and Eagles in five of their last seven games. That’s just brutal.
The 49ers expect to compete in the NFC West next season, but it’s going to be extremely hard to beat out the Rams and Seahawks with this kind of a schedule.
